First Week in Brasil

I am writing this blog to help keep everyone up to date on our latest happenings with our move to Brazil.

We left Florida on June 30 (we left our house in Buford on June 15th) After 2 longs weeks on the road the day finally came.

It was a sight to see how much luggage we had. We had 14 pieces of luggage.

Jaime and Juan did an awesome job of making sure that everything weighed the max 50 lbs. We had almost 700 lbs of luggage on each flight. The kids loved being in the airport and because our flight was delayed we even had a chance to pull out the carry along swing that Marcela gave us and let Joaquin relax for a while.

We were a sight to see in the airport!!! Thank God Amy flew out of Miami with us because it was a long trip. The kids did great on the flight from Miami to Atlanta. In Atlanta we barely had time to get something to eat and get on the plane. We ate on the plane.

Santiago proceeded to spill most of his rice all around him and the flight attendants did their best to remind us that he had made a mess. Oh well, kids will be kids. It had been such a long day that the kiddos fell asleep quickly (with the help of our friend Benadryl). The longest flight was for Joaquin. I feel like he did great but it was long for him. It was a blessing that NABC had purchased a seat for him-that really helped. We took up and entire row on the plane. We finally arrived in Sau Paulo. Getting off the plane we were trying to hurry to make it through immigration, but our stroller took forever to get unpacked. We did get preferential treatment for having so many kids and made it through immigration without any major problems. Getting our luggage was a whole other ordeal.

Jaime had to push his way through all kinds of people in order to find all of our 14 bags. We kept counting and recounting and finally realized that 2 bags were missing. They were the ones we had checked in under Amy’s name. Delta gave her a lovely toilletries bag and then let us know that the bags would arrive the next day to our hotel. We had no idea how handy that little bag was going to end up being.

It was a good thing that Joao (the man that works for NABC in Brazil) had rented a small bus for us because we barely fit with all of the bags. We had a great drive to Campinas. It is beautiful. We arrived to a nice hotel. Room service was the way to go for the first day because Jaime had a lot to do to get our apartment and car situation taken care of. The food was awesome and I am already loving all of the fruit juices I can get. The kids got their first taste of what it is like to live and breathe Brazilian football on the second day we were here. We decided to get up and head to the mall to try and find furniture. We knew Brazil was playing later that morning but had no idea that the entire city was going to be at a standstill. Walmart was the only thing open in the entire mall and we were the only people there, other than the employees. When we saw that they all started leaving their different posts and setting up chairs in front of the big screen tvs and closing, we knew it was time to go. We left Walmart as the Brazilian world cup soccer game was starting and we were literally the only people out. We went back to the hotel, where we watched the game. Unfortunately, Brazil lost. We still got to hear a lot of fireworks during the game in order to help cheer their team on. Fireworks are a common occurrence here, as we have learned. They are set off at all hours of the day and night for no particular reason. I guess that it is just a very festive culture. J After the game we went to see our apartment. The kids were excited beyond belief. We cleaned for a little while, because it is unbelievable how much dust and dirt gets in the apartment because of the balcony and windows always being open. That night we went to ETNA, which is just like IKEA. Thank God, we were able to order everyone a bed and couches. The only downside was that it took FOREVER. I think we were there 3 hours. We then headed back to the hotel. The kids wanted pizza so we decided to order some Pizza Hut. I couldn’t believe that 2 pizzas cost us $50. Let’s just say that food here is really expensive and eating out is even more expensive. We fully enjoyed our pizza.

Saturday we checked out of the hotel and went to the apartment. We needed to run back to the mall and buy appliances. I was set on getting a fridge, washer and dryer. Most people here do not have dryers at all and some people use washers. When we got to the mall we realized that it is the place to be on a Saturday ( or not the place to be if you have issues with personal space). It was packed unlike the day before. We had lunch at the mall. The mall in and of itself is huge and the food court is as well (3 times the size of our previous mall in Buford). We went to a restaurant that is very typical around here, it is kind of buffet style, but had great healthy food and at the end they just weight your plate and you pay by weight. I loved it because it had the Brazilian steaks and meat and great veggies and salads to choose from. Yum Yum!! After lunch, we spent another 3 hours buying appliances. God was watching over us because we found a place that actually sold dryers which we had previously thought we were going to have to ship. I am working on getting back into the Latin American culture, where everything takes longer. I automatically had taken for granted that in the US everything is fast and you can get in and out of places. That is not the case here. The kids were stretched to their limit after our little 3 hour shopping experience (fortunately they had TV's at the store, so they found a spot and watched their much loved "tele"). Amy was such a great help entertaining them and just hang out while we did everything that we had to. We made the poor decision to”run into Walmart” to pick up a couple of things before leaving. That was a mistake. That took forever as well. I think that we were there another hour. We bought some "camping mattresses" to sleep on in the apartment until we got our beds that weren’t getting there for 5 days. The first night at the apartment was interesting.

The kids are troopers and did not seem to mind that we were sleeping on the floor. We love the apartment and the area that it is in. We went out that night to look for a place near by to eat. We found a place around the corner (literally). It is a hotdog stand that opens every day from 5pm to 5am. It is called Cachorro, but these are not ordinary hotdogs. No these dogs are accessorized with anything you can think of, and they all come with a THICK layer of mashed potatoes. We didn't catch that part. They are very big meals, so we will probably split some next time. Great for the late night folks.

We went to church on Sunday for the first time in Brazil. The kids had a great time. All 3 of the older ones stayed together. Joaquin attempted the nursery. I had a good time talking to the two ladies in the nursery with Joaquin. Amy and Mauro actually got to hear the entire Sunday school and preaching. The church is very missions oriented and is about a 10 min walk from the apartment. The people were extremely friendly and welcoming. The missionaries had us over for lunch and we had a good time visiting with them. They were a blessing because they lent us sleeping bags and an air mattress to use until we get our own beds. That night we had dinner at the apartment.

Monday we waited all day for our washer, dryer and refrigerator, that never came. Oh well, that seems to be common here as far as everything running on Latin American time- late! Tuesday, was very exciting. We started the day by going to the kids school. We got a tour and met a few of the teacher assistants and administrators. The most exciting part for them was buying their uniforms. Isabella and Santiago tried theirs on and didn’t take them off for the rest of the day. We had a wonderful surprise because our appliances got here!! Yeah!!! We got the appliances and couldn’t use them because the plugs weren’t compatible with our outlets. The maintenance man in the building said he could come Wed. and install them for us.

Wed. we waited for the maintenance man and then he came. Jaime was gone to work . When I looked over the man had cut off the plug from my new appliances and was saying something about it being wrong to me in Portuguese. I totally didn’t understand anything that the man was saying to me. I showed him what Jaime had bought at the electric store and then I saw in his facial expression that he had made a mistake. He said he would be back. Finally after a little while he came back, reattached the plugs and fixed everything so that it would work. We started using our washer immediately because we hadn’t done laundry for almost a week. Jaime and I decided to go out for the extension we needed to buy for the dryer . When we came back Amy was standing at the door with the baby and all the kids were screaming about something beings wrong with the washer. Apparently it had been dancing around the laundry room . We then thought we got a washer that didn’t work. After a few phone calls Jaime finally figured out what was wrong and got it working. I am proud to say that we now have a working washer and dryer and I have done at least 10 loads in the last day.

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Yesterday our furniture finally arrived and we all got to sleep on real beds last night (Thurs. night). Woohooo!!!

Today, Friday, was a holiday so we took the time to drive to a “fazenda/farm) outside of the city. The kids played outside and rode horses.

Then we walked around the big park here in Campinas (Lago Taquaral). It is huge and we now know that on all holidays and weekends people just hand out at the parks and do exercise. I am amazed at what a big mix of people there are. There is not a certain stereotype that I would say , “This is a Brazilian person.” (white, black, asian, etc). We do attract attention as we go around, with our mega stroller and 4 kids. There are not many people with four kids. As I walk down the street with my stroller and three kids grabbing on to the sides of it on ropes that Jaime rigged, I know that I am definitely not in the US anymore. There are sidewalks everywhere and I am loving the walking and closeness of everything. I am understanding a little more Portuguese every day. I am amazed by how God takes care of us even in small ways that he knows that we need. I know that we will be depending on him more and more each day as we get acclimated to this new country. For now we are all happy to be here and I feel like this is where God wants us.